News & Views

Global Ads Chart / July

History was made on the Unruly Viral Video Chart this month. After three-and-a-half years as the most shared ad of all time, Volkswagen’s ad ‘The Force’ was finally overtaken by Activia’s musical collaboration with Colombian pop princess Shakira, writes Unruly's head of content David Waterhouse.

The three-and-a-half minute video – called La La La (Brazil 2014) and released in partnership with the World Food Programme – took the number one spot from VW’s 2011 Super Bowl commercial on July 30 after picking up a staggering 1,135,625 shares last month. The Force has held the top spot since February 2011.

Driving the success of the video is Danone yogurt brand Activia’s collaboration with the Colombian pop star, who recently became the first person to reach 100 million Facebook likes. During July, the pop sensation also performed at the World Cup Closing Ceremony and recently announced she was pregnant for a second time.

This ad is also the most successful example of a brand capitalising on the growing trend of ‘trackvertising’, where a brand and musical artist co-release a video which is both a musical track and advertisement.

The beauty of this new growing format is that unlike traditional ads, which tend to attract more than half of their shares in the first week before suffering viral decay, shares of trackverts and music videos are more spread out – giving these videos longevity. Indeed, Shakira’s video attracted only 26.2% of its shares in the first week. It’s why the video has been the most shared ad for the last three round-ups.

Unsurprisingly, it’s not the only World Cup-related ad to make it on to this month’s top 20.

In third spot is a cheeky ad from German radio station Bayern 3 which perfectly visualises the World Cup winners’ 7-1 semi-final demolition of hosts Brazil. The short commercial certainly caught the mood of the German nation, generating 432,329 shares during July.

FIFA sponsor adidas’ beautifully-animated ad The Final is another perfectly-timed piece of real-time marketing to make it onto the top 20. Released to celebrate two adidas teams, Germany and Argentina, reaching the World Cup final and featuring tournament stars Lionel Messi and Thomas Müller, the moving commercial built up the excitement perfectly ahead of the final showdown.

The result is an ad that is more entertaining than the final itself, its 185,383 shares making it the seventh most shared ad of the month.

But it wasn’t all about the World Cup during July. Indeed, with the shin pads, balls and Luis Suarez’s bite-guard packed up for another four years, we saw some other sports getting a look-in. First up to bat was Major League Baseball.

Sporting ads have been getting more and more melodramatic in recent years, and at this rate will supersede HBO as the hub of quality broadcasting by 2017. Taking a page out of mothership Nike’s playbook, who’ve previously given the Meryl Streep treatment to Tiger Woods and LeBron James, Jordan’s RE2PECT commemorates the New York Yankees’ legendary Derek Jeter with a series of celebrities cryptically doffing their caps.

If you like baseball, this presumably means something to you. To everyone else – hey look, Jay Z!

Another ad to make a big impression last month was a commercial from Thai mobile network dtac, which shows a new dad finally getting to grips with fatherhood.

Ads from Thailand tend to make you cry and, although admittedly a little cheesy, The Power of Love certainly falls into that bracket. By using the global themes of love and parenthood, it really struck a chord with a lot of internet users across the globe during July, its 335,341 shares last month making it the fourth most shared ad of the month.

Meanwhile, LGBT+ rights got its first taste of fast food industry support in an inspirational stunt from Burger King.

Coinciding with San Francisco’s famous gay pride parade, the brand announced the latest addition to its menu – The Proud Whopper. Cue hidden camera shots of curious (and sometimes implicitly homophobic) patrons enquiring about the rainbow-clad meal.

So what is in a Proud Whopper? After some deliberation over its secret ingredient, the customers soon discover they’ve fallen victim to a socially-progressive hoax. As the burger wrapper explains, “We’re all the same on the inside”. So, it’s just a normal burger.

With its reasonably cute conceit, Proud Whopper certainly found a tasty middle ground between fast food and human rights, attracting 102,540 shares last month, making it the 11th most shared commercial last month.